


∑

by agniratha



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Fandom
Genre: Spoilers, alcohol consumption is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-10-12 15:25:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10493853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agniratha/pseuds/agniratha
Summary: sigma has an unproductive day, and questions his life for the umpteenth time. luna steps in to help.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a little thing i wrote a couple of years ago while having a lot of emotions about sigma & vlr. maybe i'll try and expand on this section of the timeline, because it really interests me (and also upsets me) to think about him working alone and stuff, but idk how interesting it would be. anyway, for now, just a one-shot.

Date: 17 November 2051.

Absolutely nothing. That was what Sigma Klim had accomplished in the multitude of conscious hours that day. He was always a little caught up in thoughts aside from his work, but this was a bit much. His excessive preoccupation had now put him feeling a day behind schedule and only compounding the thoughts that had caused such an event in the first place.

It hadn't been the usual things that drew his thoughts away from work today. Not Phi, not Akane, not a series of clever cat puns, but rather, his own life as it was and what it could have been.

Shaking his head and rising from the desk chair, he hoped for a fresh start the next morning. As he filed away untouched paperwork in a drawer, the scotch on the shelf across the room caught his eye. Not the shitty stuff, the high quality stuff. But before he could make a regrettable choice, there was a knock on the office door.

Sigma had spent many days on end making his only rounds for the day between the crew quarters, director's office, and pantry without meeting anyone else on the way. Honestly, it slipped his mind sometimes that there were other living organisms in rhizome 9.

After a stunned second or two, he managed a faint 'come in', rising from the crouch he'd been in to reach the bottom desk drawer. As the automated door rose loudly and mechanically, he stared unwaveringly at the opening, uncertain and almost scared of who might walk through it.

"Father?" asked a small robotic voice.

"Kyle?!" Sigma asked hoarsely. "What do you want?"

"I came to inquire if you accomplished anything important today," Kyle stated plainly.

"Don't ask things like that!" yelled Sigma defensively. Kyle's innocent question was feeling like an interrogation with all the pressure Sigma had put on himself earlier, and he wanted nothing more to sleep away the worries this unproductive day had brought.

"I apologize. I was merely trying to look towards the future in which I am meant to be your…replacement."

"I know, I know! Just --" Sigma fell silent at the sound of another voice carrying through the hall.

"Kyle! There you are! Why did you run off like that?" The voice was scornful, contrasting with its regularly kind and soft nature.

"Sorry about that, doctor. I was trying to take him to bed, but he slipped away." Luna explained the situation as she took the small boy's hand and began leading him back down the hallway.

"Wait!" called Sigma. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd done that, just something inside of him telling him to. "When you've done that, could you…um…come back? Here?"

Luna looked over her shoulder, her mouth hanging open a bit. "…Of course!" she beamed, turning back to Kyle and walking at a noticeably quicker pace.

Sigma sat back in the armchair, collecting his thoughts. It wasn't long before another knock on the door signified Luna's return, and the two of them made their way up to the lounge in silence.

"Um, before anything else," Luna began after the lounge door sealed itself. "Should I make a drink?"

Sigma considered the horrifying situation he had imagined when the brandy bottle came into his field of vision earlier. But the drinks here were better, and he didn't get one from Luna that often.

"Admittedly, I can't refuse a Blue Moon," he digressed. "But a bit smaller than usual," he added quickly.

It wasn’t long before Luna set down a glass on the counter in front of him, walked back around, and had a seat at the bar next to him. As she folded her hands in her lap and faced him with a grim expression, Sigma knew she had realized this would be a serious conversation. For him, that took some of the pressure off, and he gave a small smile before taking a deep breath and beginning.

"I guess I really… thought a little too much about myself today. I wondered so much about how I might answer the question of if I wish I had been born in a different time, or even if I wish someone else was doing this stuff instead of me. Having the weight of the world on my shoulders isn't an easy job… definitely not my career path of choice. I just wonder about who I would've become if I had just been able to remain a plain old college student. I think about my friends and family and wonder if they miss me. Sometimes I really just wish I had stayed… average."

There was a moment of silence where Luna assembled her thoughts on all that she had heard and constructed a response. "Well, I know it's not your ideal career, but whose would it be? No one blames you for that. But if you think about it, there's no way you could've had the life you were working towards on Earth. The whole planet's been ravaged by nuclear explosions and epidemic disease. I've heard nothing but horror stories. And if you hadn't been chosen for this, then who's to say you wouldn't have fallen victim to radical-6?"

Sigma frowned intently and took a gulp of alcohol. Luna made another short pause, then continued.

"Anyway, my point is that that's the reality of Earth today. And wondering who you would be if it wasn't is irrelevant. The best you can do is focus on the task you've been given and save the human race from this fate. Work towards an Earth where you can go back and accomplish some of those things you dreamed of."

"And most importantly," she concluded, putting an arm around his shoulders, "I want you to remember that you aren't doing this job alone. You have me and Kyle, and soon enough Akane will come along. All three of us are here to do whatever we can to make sure that the Nonary Project is a success. So don't fret." She gave him one of those sunshine smiles, and he smiled himself for the first time in days.

He downed the rest of the cocktail and slid off of the barstool. Luna took the glass and rinsed it as he turned towards the door.

"Luna…" he said, still smiling. "Thank you. Very much."

With that he headed towards the Crew Quarters, with some new research ideas already brewing in the back of his mind for the next day.


End file.
